Are You Falling Into This Advertising And Image Trap?

I know I was going to make the next post about manual bookkeeping but whilst we were away last week I couldn’t believe the huge number of businesses that had fallen into this obvious advertising and image trap.

Website hosting is so cheap and easy these days that it is no wonder most businesses have some form of online presence, and proudly include the website name and email address in their marketing materials.

However… last week, on the Isle of Wight, nearly every advert that we saw had a good website address but an email address such as ray123@yahoo.com. This was painted on the sides of coaches, bill posters, tourist magazines, newspapers, yellow pages, in fact – everywhere we looked. It was a rare advert that had the correct email address shown. Such a shame.

Why on earth would people want to display such a bad image to the world. I accept that most of us have an underlying weird email address given to us by the ISP we use and have all email forwarded to this, but why show that off. It looks really unprofessional, tatty almost, these days.

These business have gone to the effort of finding a good and relevant web address so why don’t they just set up email forwarding as well? It is generally just a couple of mouse clicks to set it up.

The sad thing is that when I checked some of these websites, they were really posh, professional sites. So it seems that it is the website designers letting their clients down, and a case that the clients are not aware enough of the internet to ask about the email address.

So, if you are still publishing an email address that doesn’t match the website address, change it today. It is cheap, simple and makes such a difference to the way your business appears to the public.

If you need any help with this, or any other aspect of website hosting, then please do not hesitate to contact me.

I am a qualified Certified Practising Accountant having passed my final exams way back in 1981. I actually can’t believe that was 37 years ago!! Anyway, I am now in my 60’s and I have been running my own business since May 1983. And before you ask, no, I have never regretted a moment of it!
Part of the membership requirements of my professional body now dictate that I spend quite a lot of time on “CPD” - continuing professional education (one of their better ideas) - and over the last two years I decided to study business growth and marketing.
I have learnt such a lot and that knowledge has radically changed my old “accountants” approach to business. It has made such a difference to the way I work and operate I feel that I just have to pass on this knowledge. It is simply too powerful to hold back!! - but I will try and do it in simple terms rather than expecting you to spend hours, as I had to, working through the difficult language that trainers seem to use to pass on their concepts.
I hope you find the blog a useful resource and interesting place to visit as the months pass. I will do my best to keep up the flow - but if there are any topics you would like me to cover, then please let me know.
Ray Stewart